The present invention relates to an inspection system for inspection of an object, at least comprising an image recording unit supported by an inspector, a display unit and a storage unit. The invention particularly relates to inspection of ships or the like.
Ships are to be inspected at close intervals according to law. The inspection shall occur in a dock or by divers filming the complete bottom of the ship.
At conventional diving inspections, the inspection often occur at sea since the visibility is much better there than at the harbours. The person to perform the inspection goes out to the ship in a separate boat, wherein all the equipment is brought. At a diving inspection, except for three persons of the diving company, representatives of the classification society and the shipping company are present as well.
During the inspection, the diving company also has divers in the water being equipped with a camera and sound transmission and a person supervising the diver. The third person of the diving company is situated in front of a TV screen, together with the representatives of the classification society and the shipping company. The pictures of the camera of the divers are shown on the TV-screen, this picture is stored on videotape as well. The persons in front of the TV-screen deciding which action to be performed on the ship. At this time, notes concerning the damages and the counting mechanism of the video are made.
The diver swims from starboard to port and then moves approximately 2 m towards the prow and then swims from port to starboard. This pattern is repeated.
The diver keeps track of his position with respect to the ship by reading a measuring tape, which has been placed in the middle under the ship before the diver starts the inspection. The diver relays his position to the person watching on the TV-screen.
A ship inspection consists of diving work and writing reports for the diving company. The diving work itself takes approx. 8-12 hours for a ship of average-size. After the diving work is completed writing reports remains. It takes approx. 8 hours to process the videotapes and select frames of the film based on the remarks and writing text to each respective remark.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,574 an inspection system for hulls of vessel is described, wherein a diver swims backwards and forwards under the ship and films the hull of the vessel. For orientation and positioning, the hull of the vessel is marked by painting squares and by numbering. At the inspection the areas and their identity numbers are filmed and recorded. According the description above, this system is time-consuming by the marking procedure, the storing and the recovering of information. Criticised areas must be searched and/or registered for manual scanning later on.
The object of the present invention is to provide a system simplifying the inspection work and reduce the inspection and the reporting time and facilitating the documentation and the search in the documentation.
In a system, according to the invention, the position of the diver is corresponded to the film and this is displayed on e.g. a computer monitor.
Additional advantages of the system are:
Ensured inspection results,
improved control of the position of the diver,
easier to find specific check points, e.g. valves, etc.
the documentation of where the diver has been,
easy to study specific parts of the ship afterwards by clicking on a drawing,
less documentation work
production of different reports directly from a computer,
appropriate for several applications, e.g. harbour inspections and inspections within offshore, and inspections of larger objects on shore, and
the system is built in such a way that it is possible to exchange to diver to a ROV (unmanned submarine robot). ROV is gaining land within the diving business.
These objects have been solved by the system initially described comprise a contact free positioning unit and that the storage unit is arranged to at least store a image taken of said image recording unit in relation to a position given by said positioning unit and/or a time index. The system can comprise means for connecting a time and/or position index to said position and image and a note. Moreover, the system can comprise means for digitally storing images and performing search for an event by means a time- and/or position- and/or event index.
In one embodiment, the positioning unit comprises: a transmitter/receiver located on a known position adjacent the object to be inspected, a receiver/transmitter located on the inspector, whereby the transmitter/the receiver sends out a coded sound signal and the receiver/the transmitter responds with a coded signal, which is received by the transmitter/the receiver and the position of the receiver/the transmitter is decided with assistance of time and direction. Other positioning systems are known from e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,353 and JP 81-36240.
In another embodiment, the positioning unit comprises: a number of probes located on known positions, a transmitter located on the inspector, whereby the transmitter sends out a sound signal and the probes receive the signals and decides the position of the transmitter with assistance of a time difference between the probes and that the known positions are received either by placing the probes on the object or connecting the probes to a positioning system and connecting the object to the positioning system.
In yet another embodiment, the positioning unit comprises: a digital compass module containing of a number of magnetic axes and tilting sensors as well, compensating for the inclination of the magnetic axes and that the compass module keeping track on its position.
In an alternative embodiment, the positioning unit comprises: an inertia gyro sensing the direction and speed and keeping track of the position by counting from a given start position.
Preferably, said inspector is a diver or a robot.
The system also includes a database arranged to store the incoming data, comprising a model of the ship, the image taken by the image recording unit, a position of the positioning system, sound of a sound recording unit and remarks provided with time index as well. The input signals of the database comprises amongst others: one or several drawings of the object, which are re-processed to a model of the ship, a sound signal of one or several channels being converted to a standard format and provided with time index, video signal being converted to a standard format and provided with a time index and is eventually compressed, position being converted to a relative position and is provided with a time index, and remarks, which via a user interface is introduced, is provided with time index and stored.
The invention also refers to a method at inspection of an object by means of a system comprising at least an image recording means carried by an inspector, a display unit and a storing unit. The method comprising providing a contact free positioning unit and a device of the storing unit for at least storing an image recorded of said image recording unit in relation to a position given of said positioning unit and/or a time index.
Moreover, the method comprises the step to connecting a time- and/or position index with said position and image and a note.
Particularly, the invention relates to a method at an inspection of a floating object in a medium, particularly a ship, by means of a system comprising at least an image recording unit carried by an inspector, a computer unit communicating with a storage unit. The method comprises providing a contact free positioning unit at least at the object, and an arrangement of the storage unit for at least storing an image taken of said image recording unit in relation to a position given of said positioning unit and/or a time index. The inspection starts with a digital drawing of the object is stored in the computer or a storage unit. The image recording unit and a signal of the positioning unit is connected to the computer. The position of the inspector is shown as a dot on the computer stored drawing. According to a preferred embodiment, the position of the inspector is shown together with an image of the image recording unit is shown substantially continuously while the inspector moves from one position to a second position. In one embodiment continuous registration of the position of the inspector is carried out. Preferably, at the appearance of a remark being stored and connected with an image, captions and at least a part of the drawing is connected with the position of the drawing. At the study of the inspection data including notes is recovered by pointing at a drawing corresponding said drawing by means of an indicator in a registered movement pattern of the inspector.